Ly, who is advised by Whitehead Institute Member Iain Cheeseman, was one of six laureates selected by The Max Birnstiel Foundation and the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) this year. The prestigious international award recognizes Ly's work on largely unstudied protein variants. Different versions of the same protein, which arise from processing the same gene in alternate ways, can serve different functions. Ly has shown how mutations that disrupt only one protein variant can lead to loss of some but not all of a gene's functions. This work could advance scientific knowledge of rare genetic disorders.